In what can only be described as a bold attempt at reinventing the concept of going absolutely nowhere very quickly, the Biden administration has announced a $1.1 billion award to Brightline West — a private venture with a penchant for optimism — to help build a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and a mysterious location known as Victorville, California. For those unfamiliar, Victorville is situated roughly 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, which means this train will theoretically whisk passengers a considerable way toward Los Angeles, but not quite to it. Sort of like promising folks a trip to the beach and dropping them off at the nearest water fountain.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has never met a locomotive he didn’t want to enthusiastically endorse, hailed the project as a cutting-edge example of American infrastructure catching up to where Japan and France were sometime around 1981. Set to run entirely along the median of Interstate 15, the train is projected to cut what is frequently a six-hour traffic nightmare down to a passenger experience lasting a mere two hours, provided one has first managed to conquer the Mad Max-style ordeal of driving to Victorville.
Brightline West claims the electric train could shuttle more than 11 million riders annually with speeds up to 200 mph. This might seem excessive for a trip between a gambling oasis and an endpoint best known for outlet malls and existential unease, but let no one say ambition is in short supply. Company officials say construction could begin before the end of 2023, though critics remain jaded, noting that similar announcements have been made with the regularity and resolve of New Year’s gym memberships.
The funding is part of the Biden administration’s $66 billion allocation for rail from the 2021 infrastructure law, a pot of money designed to make Americans fall back in love with trains, ideally the kind that leave the station before everyone starts checking their watches. Brightline, the only private intercity rail company making actual headway in the United States without immediately combusting, may be our best shot at coaxing domestic high-speed rail out of the realm of mythological creatures and into the land of slightly delayed realities.
Of course, one might ask — and indeed many do — why the train cannot run all the way to the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles. To which the answer involves a combination of complicated permitting, mountainous terrain, and the general California pastime of imagining big things and building only halfway. Brightline has plans, they assure us, for later extensions. Details on those are as firm as a bowl of room-temperature pudding.
Still, federal officials consider this a significant milestone in bringing the future of train travel to America, one desert compromise at a time. Whether this line becomes a beloved transportation artery or a $12 billion cautionary tale about aiming for Paris and landing in Barstow remains to be seen.
For now, rail fans can sleep soundly knowing that someday soon, getting from Sin City to a suburban parking lot will be faster than ever.
Nothing says progress like hurtling toward Los Angeles and stopping just short of it on purpose.